Day 9

Today we leave Berchtesgaden and head to Munich, Germany. It takes about 4 hours on the autobahn which means "Ribbon of highway". Yes, some really drive fast! Chuck and Bill take turns driving - getting up to 170km/hr which is 108 miles/hour! You NEVER drive in the left lane unless you are passing. They fly up that lane and if you are there and they flash their lights at you they will run you over. We leave the Alps behind now and the land changes drastically. We see farm land of wheat, sugar beets, and corn. The fields are beautiful as they are striped with golden wheat and bright green beets and corn fields. There are little rolling hills off in the distance but it looks very much like Minnesota or Wisconsin now.

We get to Dachau and find the concentration camp right on the edge of the town. Signs call it "KZ Gedenkstatte" or a memorial sight - they don't call it a concentration camp. No one around, Germans, acknowledges that it is there. We go in the back door next to the Catholic convent - parking is just outside the wall rather than 4 blocks away from the main entrance. Wow, this is so emotional. They have the gas chambers and crematoriums still there. People were told they were going in to showers and were taken to one room to take off their clothes. The next room they were placed in and then the gas was turned on and they were murdered. The next room was the crematoriums. Outside everyone walks so solemn and go past memorial chapels that have been built - Russian Orthodax, Protestant, Catholic, and the Jewish Synogague. There were 30 barracks. One has been rebuilt like it was. They had men packed in these small, 4 foot long, 2 feet wide beds. There is a large museum with many pictures and descriptions of of life at the camp. This camp was not just for German Jews. It was for anyone who questioned Nazism - priests, ministers, Polish, homesexuals, government dissidence, etc.

This is the hottest day, 94 degrees, and walking the long courtyard of Dachau is horrible, many blocks long. There are many school kids there on tour and yet no one is talking or smiling - all walking quiet and solemn. When we leave we find our hotel and check in - Munich Marriott. After checking in our rooms we drive down to the "Seehaus im Engish Garten" This is a beautiful little restruant right on a lake in the middle of Munich. It is beatuiful and we have a great late lunch.

Next we drive down to the markplatz or Munich's City Center. We time it perfectly - it is 4:55pm so we get to see the big clock strike 5pm. Dancers come out and dance in a circle and music plays. This all happens at the clock tower of the headquarters of city hall. The city is very busy and crowded. There are bikers and cars everywhere and traffic is horrible.

We drive to the Hoffbrauhaus - the oldest beer house in the world. It was built by Monks. When Hitler was an artist in Munich, he spent a lot of time there. He would discuss politics with others and made speeches there and started his following of people. He spent time plotting and forming his political party there. It has a huge open garden in the middle of the building where people sit and drink beer. There are rows and rows of small compartments where they leave their beer mugs and lock them up for the next time they come. Some old men come so much they have their own coasters made with their pictures on them and have their own booth that is always reserved for them to sit in.

We head back to the hotel and go swimming and have dinner at Champions - a hotel restruant with real American food. It is so good to have regular hamburgers! This has been the longest day - maybe because of the long drive...maybe because of the emotions at Dachau, maybe because of the heat...Home feels very far away....